Tuesday, December 07, 2010

I've been asked a lot lately about the Molehill project. "Molehill" is an internal Adobe code name for a set of low-level, GPU-accelerated 3D APIs we announced at MAX 2010 (another reason never to miss Adobe MAX)! The new Molehill APIs enable advanced 3D experiences across screens through the Flash runtimes and allow developers to leverage GPU hardware acceleration for significant performance gains.

How it works today in Flash Player 10.1

Flash Player 10.1 renders thousands of non z-buffered triangles at approximately 30 Hz. For true 3D, z-buffering is required. This refers to the management of image depth coordinates in three-dimensional (3-D) graphics models. It is very difficult to accomplish in real time due to the immense processing power required. Unlike X and Y coordinates where there is a physical boundary, Z coordinates can extend infinitely, although the range of human eye perception is somewhat limited.

You can spoof 3D effects today using the Flex attributes "rotationX, rotationY and rotationZ". Here is a project I made using a simple photo that moves it in 3 axis based on user input. This is not true 3D however.

The source code for this project:

The Adobe website on Molehill states: "With the new 3D APIs, developers can expect hundreds of thousands of z-buffered triangles to be rendered at HD resolution in full screen at around 60 Hz. Using the new 3D APIs in Flash Player and AIR will make it possible to deliver sophisticated 3D experiences across almost every computer and device connected to the Internet.

The 3D capabilities enabled by the new APIs will also be available to the broader developer community through popular ActionScript® 3D frameworks, such as Alternativa3D, Away3d, Flare3D, Sophie3D or Yogurt3D."

Probably the single best description is from Thibault's video embedded below. I cannot wait to get my hands on the technology!

"Market requires that the certificate used to sign the apk be valid until at least October 22, 2033. Create a new certificate."

This is a requirement which I had overlooked. By default, creating a certificate via Flash Builder (File > Export > Release Build) will not work as it is not valid for the length required by the Android Marketplace.

I set out to make a proper certificate however there was not a lot of very current information available. After a lot of searching, I found the answer right in front of me. Using the AIR 2.5 SDK, you can create a self signed certificate using the line command tool. If you have the same issue, follow these instructions:

Now enter the command "dir" (Windows) or "ls" (Linux || Unix) and you should see your certificate. A screenshot is below.

That's pretty much it. You can use this to sign your applications in a variety of ways, depending on which development tools you use. For Adobe Flash Builder 4.5, you can reference this certificate during the release process as shown below.

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